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Preseason camp update

We'll have more details on this as they become available, but we've been able to confirm through multiple sources that Temple will be spending perhaps up to the first two weeks of preseason camp at a field and facility in The Bronx. Then the team will finish up camp at Chodoff Field and Edberg-Olson Hall back at Temple prior to the start of the season.

The idea behind it, from what we can gather, is that there was so much beyond the team's control last year with COVID restrictions, the late start to camp and the season and everything else. So this year, they wanted to look at being more proactive, taking control of their situation, and getting away somewhere else to look at the tangent benefits of getting away and team bonding, and it's something that's been under consideration for quite a while.

Preston Brown wants to bring a championship mentality to Temple

Here's a full transcript of yesterday's conversation with Preston Brown, Temple's new director of player personnel. Some good anecdotes and details here.

Has anyone met Dr Wingard yet?

Just curious if anyone has met him or talked to him about college athletics yet? Being an athlete at Stanford you have to think he has a finger on the pulse with this kind of stuff. I know from the University standpoint people will say he has more important things to deal with, but I really think he will need to be aggressive with conference realignment. Especially having a retired head basketball coach pretending to be an athletic director.

He has to understand that clamoring to get into a conference like the ACC will increase applications, TV revenue, branding, etc. Correct me if i’m wrong but I feel like temple probably has a better relationship with the ACC than any of the other big conferences.

My guess is the ACC wishlist is something more along the lines of; Notre Dame, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, TCU, or UCF. I still think Notre Dame stays independent, UCF will probably get blocked by Florida state and Miami. Then I’ve heard of other rumors where the Big10 could add a team like Clemson but who knows.

Who knows. All of this sucks. Back to the title of the thread, I was just curious if anyone knows any of his feelings towards athletics other than just speculation.

Roster updates

Temple updated its official roster today to include the incoming freshman class and transfers. As always, another offseason in the weight room has led to some considerable weight changes. You can see the official roster here: https://owlsports.com/sports/football/roster but here are some of my knee-jerk takeaways/observations:

Returning Players

DL Demerick Morris is down to 300 pounds after showing up to Temple at 320.
DT Nick Bags is up from 260 pounds to 295 pounds.
TE James Della Pesca is up to 250 after playing at 230 pounds in 2020.
OL Bryce Thoman is up to 280 from 270
OL Jermaine Donaldson is up to 300 from 285
OL Chevy Trask is up to 270 from 260
DE Travon King, who opted out last season, is now up to 225 pounds after being 210 in 2019.

Newcomers

DT Jalen Satchell has gained 15 pounds since he showed up in January and is now up to 270.
OL Jimto Obidegwu is listed at 295 pounds as a true freshman.
OL transfer Luke Foster is listed at 285 after playing at 270 at Presbyterian.
DE Jordan Laudato is listed at 255 pounds after playing at 240 pounds at West Chester Henderson.
Balansama Kamara is listed as a 235-pound DE. Kamara played a lot of OLB at Central at 220 pounds so it'll be interesting to see if he ends up fully on the line or in sort of a hybrid role.

Notes

All scholarship newcomers are listed on the roster with the exception of JUCO OL Richard Rodriguez, who I've confirmed is enrolled and will be added to the roster prior to preseason camp.

I think you can see why Rod Carey and his staff felt the need to bring in some established OL transfers, as that next generation of linemen are still growing into their collegiate bodies. The additions of Foster and Rodriguez, who will both have eligibility next year as well, will help bridge the gap to the group of guys like Thoman, Donaldson, Trask and Sam Davis.

The staff was high on Bags when he was 260 pounds so the extra 35 pounds could help him carve out a role in the DT rotation. With Xach Gill being out for at least the first half of the season, there will be plenty of snaps to go around.

Temple professor believes Owls are well-positioned for NIL

@Sam Cohn wrote a follow-up story with quotes from Thilo Kunkel from our latest podcast. Again, if you're catching up on what NIL means and how it could impact Temple, this should be a good resource for you.

The Scoop: Mailbag questions for Temple professor and NIL expert Thilo Kunkel

Hi, everyone!

The Scoop is back this week, and we'll be talking to Temple School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Professor Thilo Kunkel. He's done a lot of research and published a paper on NIL called There Is No Nil in NIL: Examining the Social Media Value of Student-Athletes' Names, Images, and Likeness, and he's teaching a class about it this fall called Personal Branding of Athletes: Name, Image and Likeness.

We'll talk to him about how NIL could impact Temple, so if you have mailbag questions for him or for us about other topics like football, basketball and recruiting, please drop them in here and we'll get to as many as we can. We'll take questions up until 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening!

New sack numbers released for Jets legends Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko and others

... Klecko is up to 78.0...
Even more interesting than the leaderboard changes is the potential historical significance of Gastineau and Klecko’s magical 1981 season. These new stats reveal the two both tallied at least 20 sacks in one season (Gastineau with 20 and Klecko with 20.5), a lone occurrence in NFL history.

Tweet about Mathis & Mitchell at QB

There's a tweet on the front page about how Mathis & Re-al Mitchell have distanced themselves from others in the QB room.

Is there more to Mitchell we just didn't see last year? He really struggled. I am trying my best to not make any strong opinions about what I saw last year since it was such a mess with all the restrictions we had.

But is this really a competition? And what do we make of what it might say about Mathis?

Supreme Court decision that leads to paying athletes

Any comments or opinions about this ruling and what do you think the implications might be for Temple going forward ? My initial opinion is that it will cause incredible player movement . It will also open up lots and lots of fake endorsements from alumni to recruit players . Who is to say whether a car dealer paying a starting cornerback for his likeness is legit ?

New QB Coach

We hired a new QB coach looks like...

The guy's bio seems credible enough. On paper, no argument he's deserving of a D1 QB coach job. And I don't know him personally so tough for me to really know how much swagger he has.

But why does he look and feel like someone Dunphy would hire? And has hiring someone like that EVER worked for Temple?

Like Bobby Wallace, if you just looked at his resume, was a GREAT football coach. Not a good football coach. A great one. He recruited Bo Jackson. He won 3 national titles at D2? But he was awful for Temple.

Have we learned nothing? Schools like Western Kentucky or Wake Forest or San Diego State... like 90% of schools, it doesn't matter. I'm just so sick of Temple not understanding who it is and who its target is and that we're special and this shit that works at other schools... i.e., just hiring a guy b/c they're a good coach, it doesn't work here. Fran Brown is going to eat this guy's lunch. Just throw another mouse in the snake den smh.

Punchline: Adam Dimichele.

Hope the new guy can recruit the hell out of the great plains. Convincing kids from Iowa to come to North Broad Street. The next AAC title goes through Grand Forks & Sioux City!
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